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I was about 13 years old and taking a nap in my room. There was something white and kind of hazy, like light was comming off of it, in the shape of (don't laugh) a flamingo's neck and head leaning over me (I couldn't see the body). It just stayed there staring at me. I tried to scream for my mom, but of course, hopeless. And I was paralyzed and terrified.

When I got up, I ran to my mother and told her our house was haunted. A ghost was holding me in bed. Later that night I even started speaking to "the ghost"

"I know you're in here. Why are you haunting me" type of things

After explaining to my mother what had happenned, we talked about the possibility of a visit from an angel.

Little did I know this was such a mild episode. Later came earthquakes, killer gnomes (yep, the garden type), blood rivers,. . .etc.

At least during the later episodes, I knew what they really were!

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Luckily mine are not frightening. The first one that I can remember was about 20 yrs ago (and I was about 20 yrs old). I dragged myself out of bed when the alarm went off, took my shower, brushed my teeth, got completely ready for work and was about to walk out into the garage to drive to work.... that's when the alarm REALLY did go off and I was still sleeping in bed. I was sooooo disappointed because I thought I was already done getting ready and I still had EVERYTHING to do AGAIN!

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Luckily mine are not frightening. The first one that I can remember was about 20 yrs ago (and I was about 20 yrs old). I dragged myself out of bed when the alarm went off, took my shower, brushed my teeth, got completely ready for work and was about to walk out into the garage to drive to work.... that's when the alarm REALLY did go off and I was still sleeping in bed. I was sooooo disappointed because I thought I was already done getting ready and I still had EVERYTHING to do AGAIN!

Bummer! lol.

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I was visiting friends and asked if I could take a brief nap on their couch (they are aware of my narcolepsy). They said fine and I was asleep within a minute. I awoke and immediately noticed a large plastic tarantula spider on the ottoman by the couch. I was amused and assumed it to be a gag by my friends. In seconds, I was again asleep. Upon awaking again, the 'spider' was gone. I asked them about their gag, but they knew not what I meant (they really didn't!). I decided

I had had my first hypnogoggic hallucination I explained to my friends what I thought had occurred. I understand these HH's are usually or often terrifying, but mine was fortunately only amusing. Later, I asked my neurologist if this was a hypnogoggic hallucination. He replied 'Yes.'

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I was way too young to remember my first one ( I bet they were crazy).

After a messed up divorce that put my daughters in far distance away from me (and in a bit more dangerous of a living situation), I had a dream me and my youngest daughter were lying in the grass (place unknown). We were just laughing and playing...being silly. She leaned over to whisper something in my ear. As she leaned in to me the sky got dark. I can't remember what it was she said, but right after she said it I woke up bawling like a baby. In many of my dreams (and while exiting my SP) it feels like someone quickly replaces my blood with liquid fear.

At the time (and all too often because of mywhackJob Ex) I didn't know when I would see them again.

It truly sucked.

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The first that I can really vividly remember is when i was about 4 or 5 years old. My parents were having card night and I can recall hearing the voices even in my dreams. I had a horrible nightmare about this really bad guy driving in a car down our street and the headlights were shining through my bedroom window. I remember waking up in a pool of sweat and feeling just miserable while I waddled to the bathroom a couple feet away to pee. While sitting there probably sleeping once again, (LOL), I remember vividly seeing a 'headlight beam' coming up through the drain of the bathtub. It completely freaked me out and I realized after a couple seconds that I was able to actually scream. My dad came to my rescue and put me back to bed. He assured me it was all just a bad dream, and gave me my elephant wind up music stuffed animal and told me to go back to bed. After that I can vividly once again remember seeing that same 'headlight beam' coming through the darn keyhole of the doorknob on door next to my bed (leading into the bathroom). This time I just sucked it up and didn't scream, but it was super scary all the same. All this makes sooooo much sense now!

What was your first Hypnogogic Hallucination and what did you think was going on when you finally came out of it?

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Sometimes mine come with strange smells. My favorite, I was spending the night at my best friends house in high school and as I started to fall asleep (facing the door) I smelled smoke. It got really heavy and I opened my eyes and say light dancing behind the door---like fire! I was so scared I couldn't move (really I was having sleep paralysis) I kept trying to move and finally was able to! I jumped out of bed, grabbed my friend, drug her our of bed (she hadn't fallen asleep yet) and told her to get her rope ladder (I don't know any one who owns a rope ladder) I told her the house was burning down, she thought I was joking. i was so frustrated that she couldn't smell the smoke and why she was fighting me...right then her mom opened the door. There was no fire outside the door, everything went back to normal color (everything WAS hazy) and I all of a sudden couldn't smell smoke at all. It was kind of awkward trying to explain what I was doing...I REALLY thought the house was on fire!

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I can't remember my first one. I may now remember the first time I was aware of something strong there, I was (at the time) part of some meditation class, but feeling very sleepy instead then started seeing multiple images of mostly farm places and farmers, field, flowers and people from rural areas, country folk from 1900's

I always assumed it was something normal and a phenomem normal people have. I was under the impression that the word "daydreaming" - referred to having those visions.

I never knew it was something unique to a condition (later diagnosed as Narcolepsy)

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My first was around four or five years old. I was with my sister inthe bed we shared, and she was asleep but I wasn't just yet. There were these GIANT purple lips on the window talking to me in the Radio DJ kind of vioce. I dont remember now what they were saying but they would not go away! I screamed my freakin head off for ever after that. I remember my mom trying to calm me down about a zillion times, but it didn't work. Finally my dad came in took his belt off and layed it at the bottom of the bed. He said " If I have to come up here again I'm gonna use this." And that shut me up finally. But I must have sat there sobbing and staring at that window for another good hour before I cried myself to sleep. It was horrible. My family still talks about it like it was funny and it's cool that now they know what was wrong... But to me I dont think it's funny at all. I almost got my butt whooped! That is never funny when you area little kid!

Dont worry my parents weren't terrible. They were just really tired and tired of me screaming.

Another one I had as a child was the easter bunny. I still totally believe he's real!!!!

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I experience my first HH last week. The details escape me at the moment but it was not terifying, just odd. I seem to be having a memory thing at the moment. Since I usually don't remember dreams, this did seem to stand out as memorable but benign.

Russel

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Luigi would come into my room every hour or so, grab a couple coins then go down a pipe in the corner of my room... I was often cross with him for disturbing me and wasn't caught off guard by the fact that I was 'interacting' with a fictional character. I didn't even realize this had been going on for months until something came up in conversation and I realized how absurd my little experiences were. At this point in my life I was still undiagnosed, so it took me a few years before I connected those experiences with the Narcolepsy.

I find most of my hallucinations these days are more obscure, they don't have visual or auditory queues, they are just obscure thoughts that are disconnected and don't make sense in any context whatsoever. An example being thinking my cats were WAD files from the video game DOOM laying on my bed. Anyone else have these? (maybe I just play video games too much )

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I think my first HH came years before I had a clue about any significant health problem (and likely 32-33 years before my diagnosis). A had a horrific dream as a 5 or 6 year old. A witch and ghost were chasing me, and the experience was sheer terror. I wound up in my parents' bed and refused to leave. While I had periodic odd dreams in the years that followed, I actually rarely remember any of my dreams (which is ironic since, as a PWN, I spend way too much time in REM). I did have HH before my first PSG and MSLT but they came during the day when I would dose in the midst of grading student presentations. I would start writing on the grade sheet the things that were in my head instead of what they students were actually saying. My most recent experience, though, was an actually HH. I kept trying to get up for work and couldn't do it. My panic level grew and grew until I finally forced myself up. As I looked at the clock, KNOWING that it was already 8 AM (I had been 7:45 AM when I had last looked at it) and that I needed to leave my house in 15 minutes to get to work, I realized that it was 4:30 AM. I had dreamed the entire thing. Gotta love this disease.

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One of my first HH's was when I was about 11. I think I was having a nightmare, but then I was awake and I realized the dream wasn't a dream (or so I thought then).

There were huge bugs everywhere in my room. I didn't know what to do... I felt frozen laying in bed. I tried to yell, but couldn't. I finally was able to get out of bed and I ran to my parents room.

When you're 11 thats not too cool with your parents anymore! When I got to their room I was still jumping and wiping them off of me. I couldn't get the bugs to go away. My parents were very upset I woke them up. I have no idea what they thought... I was terrified and I swear the bugs were everywhere.

It's kinda funny now, but it wasn't then!

My mom finally told me I could sleep with them. LoL... obviously that doesn't really take care of the BUGS though!!! I layed down between them, and kept wiping the bugs off. My mom got so so so mad that I kept moving. I think maybe my parents thought I was just that desperate for attention or something lol.

I'm sure my face was great too... I was so confused as to why mom and dad couldn't see the bugs LoL I thought they were crazy!

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Interests:I just found this site today, and am very thankful that I did. Today, I have been feeling overwhelmed by this disease; so, it is good to know that I am not alone. All my life, I have been easily tired and needed more sleep than most people, but I just thought it was my metabolism or that I was just lazy. I am 59 years old, and only got my diagnosis of narcolepsy less than a year ago. I can remember complaining of feeling tired all the time, but the doctors usually recomended a healthier life style ie lose weight. I did, then found it was the eating all the time that had kept me awake to drive, to work,even to read a book.

It was the summer of 1959, I was 10 years old, there was a neighbor who talked a lot about the Russians dropping bombs-anytime. We had seen a program at school about what to do-where the fall out shelters were, etc. Anyway, I looked out my bed room window, and there they were, bombs dropping from the sky! My screaming woke up the whole house, and my mother, said, "it is only a dream," but I knew that I was not asleep! For many years after, I was afraid to look out the windows at night.

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I used to see raging dogs jumping through my bedroom window and then hiding underneath my bed. I could hear and smell them and was too terrified to get out of bed to the toilet. I just thought that everyones nightmares were the same. The first time I had a HH that I asked about was when I was ten years old. I was sat on the toilet before going to bed and a figure stood at the door way. I felt calm and the figure was a man dressed all in blue with a white cloak. He was young with blonde hair. My mum said that I had seen Jesus and had had a vision.

When I had my daughter (age 25) I saw a man, lady and child all the time in my house. I also saw one of the dogs (from my night terrors) outside my bedroom door. These did spook me and I called a priest in. I was extremely tierd at the time as my baby kept me up every two hours through the night. I got my diagnoise in my thirties and all my symptoms made sense.

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My husband has recently been diagnosed with N and hypersomnia and ever since I've known him he has talked about the HH's, only now after reading some of these experiences am I starting to understand. Sadly Guy only ever has very frightening HH's and can't move, normally they happen at night just as he is dropping off to sleep, he wakes up screaming, moaning or crying and often asked me why I didn't help him when he was yelling for me (but he hasn't). Sometimes I know when he has started one because he seems to hold his breath, this is when I try to wake him.

Guy also describes most of his HH's as painful, does anyone else here experience pain when in one of these? He said often there are dark wraith like creatures tearing at his body!

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In answer to the question above, (I need to figure out how to quote) yes, I have experienced painfull HH. The worst one ever was that my face was bubbling, burning and melting off. I wasn't in SP at the time I was wandering around my room in a helpless stupour (at least I think I was) unable to wake up from this terrible nightmare and it lasted for what seemed like ages. The pain was unamaginable, and not knowing what was happening to me didn't help either.

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I woke up in the middle of the night to see blocks just like on the cover of R.E.M's "Fables of the Reconstruction" album with neck ties hanging off of it floating above my bed, rising towards the ceiling. I leapt out of bed in a fright and turned the light on but there was nothing there. It was confusing at first, then I laughed. It had seemed so real! I suppose the choice of band was ironic too...